


Found A Way

by Gage



Series: FULL MOON SERIES [1]
Category: 9-1-1 (TV), Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Canon-Typical Violence, Crossover, F/M, Gen, Light Angst, M/M, Mild Blood, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-25
Updated: 2020-02-25
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:08:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22886830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gage/pseuds/Gage
Summary: Pulling into the driveway he's barely shut the engine off before he's leaping out of the truck and making his way up to the house.
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV)
Series: FULL MOON SERIES [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1645147
Comments: 22
Kudos: 185





	Found A Way

* * *

Eddie presses down on the gas pedal a little too hard, his fingers gripping the steering wheel of his truck so tightly that his knuckles turned white. He could feel his heart pounding away in his chest, his mind racing with worst-case scenarios as he tries to get home.

This wasn't supposed to have happened, not ever. Eddie has prepared their whole lives for all eventualities and he feels so goddamn stupid for not thinking this one through.

Pulling into the driveway he's barely shut the engine off before he's leaping out of the truck and making his way up to the house. The living room lights are on, everything seems ok. He knows better though and walks down the hall to where Christopher's bedroom door is slightly open. His little boy is fast asleep, so Eddie walks quietly not wanting to wake him. Leans down and presses a soft kiss to his forehead, and even in the dim lighting, he can see that his cheeks are streaked with tears. Oh, man. It breaks his heart knowing that it's his fault forever forgetting what this weekend was. He wishes he hadn't told Cap that he could cover Stover's shift.

Eddie sighs as he leaves the room, giving his son one last look as he closes the door. He turns and walks down the hall to where the bathroom door is open, light spilling out into the dark hallway.

Buck is standing over the sink, arm held out, blood staining his pale skin just below... familiar teeth marks. Eddie’s heart drops down to his stomach, his eyes sting with tears.

Aw shit.

It's too late.

Eddie stares horrified, he must make some sound because his best friend looks up at him with what he's sure is supposed to be a reassuring smile.

“It's worse than it looks, ” Buck says, oblivious to the terror that's running through Eddie's veins. “It actually stopped bleeding a few minutes after he bit me, talk about miracles.”

Eddie has to stop himself from raging, Buck has been on blood thinners for a few weeks now since the doctor’s discovered he had multiple blood clots. If Christopher was any normal kid, Buck would have had to call an ambulance before he bled to death. The fact that he hadn’t, sent his mind reeling. Eddie feels his stomach roll, he’s gonna be sick, he can't even decide how to tell his best friend that it wasn't exactly a miracle that saved his life.

“We uh… We need to talk.”

Bucks looks confused for a good minute but shrugs his shoulders. Eddie gets to work pulling out the alternate first aid kit. The one he's put together, that's specifically for him and Christopher. “Come on..”

The water shuts off and Buck wipes his arm down, there's still a fair bit of blood on it but Eddie doesn't focus on that. He has Buck sit on the sofa, before he plants himself on the coffee table, starts digging out what he needs from the box. He doesn't realize how bad his hands are shaking till Buck is grasping and holding them still.

“Eddie, hey… what's going on..” it's the concern in Buck's voice that makes his heartache. He's pretty sure he's gonna lose his best friend tonight. “It’s just a bite, I'm not mad, I know Christopher didn't mean it.”

Christopher.

God, his son is gonna be so upset when he wakes up. The thing is Eddie knows that Chris didn't mean to bite Buck. His boy has always been careful when it comes to other people around him. Especially those he loves and considers his. Eddie knew from the moment Buck entered their lives, that things have changed drastically, for the better. When he needed help the most Buck brought him to his found family, with nothing but open arms. Every time he felt like he was spiraling out of control, Buck was there to bring him back down whether he knew it or not. For the last couple of weeks, Christopher has been dropping hints, that they should tell Buck the real reason they spend one weekend a month away. Eddie felt bad every time he had to tell Chris, no, and explain why it wasn't a good idea. Eddie’s had to endure that pout for three weeks and now it looks like history was repeating itself. He just hopes that Buck wouldn't run from this… from them.

Like Shannon did.

-*-

Eddie pulls out a zip pouch, he probably doesn't have to test Buck. The fact that the bleeding had stopped so soon, should be enough of an answer. Still. Derek told him he should be sure, he was positive that if he explains now, and he hasn't started the change, Buck would think he was crazy. He looks up into those ocean blue eyes, and sees they're filled with concern, but not for himself. Eddie glances down at the pouch, slides on a pair of thick gloves.

“Eddie, what the hell’s going on.” That concern turns into fear, he can hear it in the way Buck's heartbeats fiercely in his chest. That rhythm he normally takes comfort in, changes when Buck gets scared.

“I gotta make sure.” Though he sounds completely calm on the outside, inside he’s a freaking mess.

“Make sure?” Buck's eyes narrow down on the contents of the pouch.

“You said he _bit_ you...”

“Yeah,” the ‘duh’ tone could be felt a mile away.

Eddie nods, gestures for Buck to hold out the wounded arm, he doesn't even hesitate to place his left arm into Eddie's hand. “Take a deep breath, this might sting a little.”

Neither of them are strangers to pain. Doesn't stop Buck from gasping in pain, his eyes watering when Eddie passes the small square of gauze over the bite mark that matches Christopher's canines. There’s no mistake when the gauze changes color. He looks up at his best friend, pleading with whatever God is out there, not to take him away.

~*~

After patching up Buck's arm, Eddie packed away the box. He goes to the kitchen to get them both a beer, although it occurs to him that neither of them can get drunk, not after this. 

“You gonna talk to me or just glare holes at the wall?” Buck doesn't sound mad, anxious maybe but not mad.

That’s good. He thinks as he moved into the living room. This is a hell of a lot worse than when he had to explain to Shannon why he freaked out over Christopher biting her. There hadn’t even been that much blood back then. Hell of a lot of fighting though. He sighs real heavy before dropping onto the sofa beside the other man, thighs pressing together. If this is the last conversation he’s gonna have with Buck he wants to be as close as possible. He places his beer down on the coffee table and tries to brace himself for, pretty much anything. Can’t seem to bring himself to start though, and he startles when Buck sits up, the heat of his body pressing into his sides, which settles something warm inside of him.

“I’m sorry Buck,”

“You keep saying that but… I don’t understand.”

“Just don’t freak out, okay?”

Buck nods anyway. Eddie takes in all the details of his best friend's face, the curve of his jawline, the pink of his full lips, the mark on his left eye that makes him stand out in the crowd. The way the blue in his eyes can change, when he’s so swept up in his emotions. The way his scent has permeated every part of his home, the rhythm of his heartbeat which Eddie knows that Christopher memorized after that first week. Hopes to hell this isn’t the last time he will see him. For a second he just closes his eyes committing all this to memory, holding it close before pushing all his fear down into that box, slamming the lid shut and locking it tight. Eddie searches for that internal instinct, that helps him bring up his natural eyes. The small gasp that escaped Buck's lips felt like a shot in the dark. The inches between them might as well have been a cavern now. “I'm still the same guy you sat with when we pulled that live round out of Charlie's leg, last year.” Eddie hates that he put that look on Buck’s face, that lost, confused expression. “The same guy who's back you’ve had for the last year, who has had yours.”

Buck’s gaze slides back down at the area where his wounds have been patched up, narrowing slightly before he looks back to Eddie. He can see the gears in his head turning, and it makes his heart drop when Buck slowly turns towards the hallway, in the direction of Christopher’s bedroom door.

“Buck?”

It’s taking everything he has inside of him not to leap up after him when Buck leaves the sofa. Eddie watches him with a heavy heart as he paces on the other side of the coffee table. After a few minutes of nothing but the sound of Buck's boots against the carpet he stops, opens his mouth but no sound comes out. Eddie sits back and gives Buck all the time and space he needs, even if instinct is telling him not to. The least he can do is give him this. For Eddie it feels like an eternity, he’s convinced that Buck’s gonna walk out on him, that come morning he’s gonna have to face his kid and explain that another person in his life wasn’t so receptive to what they are.

Eddie and Christopher were the first in a long line of born wolves in their family. The first in three generations, which was why when he first shifted as a child, Eddie freaked out so bad he wound up hurting his sister. His parents had woken up to the chaos of a shifted child, it took him a long time to realize that his well-meaning parents had handled it all wrong. When Christopher was born he had been both elated and scared out of his mind. Some complications left both Shannon and Chris in the hospital for days. It broke his heart but he did all that he could to help them both. Christopher showed no signs of being like Eddie, so he thought re-enlisting was their best option. One phone call towards the end of his tour changed that all.

“Eddie?”

He's brought out of his thoughts by the slight stutter in Buck's heartbeat. Eddie glances up from where he's been zoned out, nails digging into the palm of his hands. A bad habit he picked up when he dealt with his first full moon.

“Am I?” Buck raises his hand, gestures at his patched-up arm. When Eddie nods, Buck’s scent turns sour, fear erupting in the air. His own gums itch as his teeth lengthen, he has to press his lips together to keep them from showing. Eddie's not sure if what Buck's feeling is towards him or the thought of being different for the rest of his life.

“Yeah, man I’m…”

Buck just shakes his head, wringing his hands in front of him. “Tonight isn’t a full moon… that was yesterday.” That tone is filled with firm curiosity.

Eddie can see Buck putting the pieces together, and this is where their friendship either comes to an end or becomes stronger.

“Why would you leave him alone tonight of all nights?”

That… is not the question he thought would come out of Buck’s mouth, let alone the accusation it brings. Eddie’s mind blanks out as he stares at his best friend, the frown that’s taken over his face. It takes a second for his brain to come back online. “I didn’t. I left him with you.” There’s that familiar rise of heat inside of him.

“On a freakin' full moon Eddie!” Buck gestures out the window.

Ohhh this was not happening. Eddie was glad that the sour scent had left Buck. He wasn't happy about being called out like this though. “First off that was yesterday… Second, let me see if I got this right, you're angry I left my kid…”

“ _Alone_ …”

“ with _you_ …and not the fact that you were bitten by a wolf?”

Buck's eyes narrow down a bit, his ears tint red and he can't quite meet Eddie's eyes. He brings his hand to his chest, “I'm still processing the fact that you're a…”

“Wolf,” he feels his natural eyes flare up, smirks when a different but familiar scent comes off of Buck. One he's come to know, and if this was any other situation he would have loved to play.

“Stop that.”

Eddie stands up from the sofa, slinks around the coffee table till he’s standing right in front of Buck. No one ever said he was a saint. “Stop what?”

“You know what.”

Yeah okay, so he was enjoying this a little, but he was also happy that Buck wasn’t running away screaming, calling him a monster or any other things he’d been called over the years. Eddie reaches out, fingers skimming the bandage. Buck’s scent was already changing, he knew that before he even tested him. He glances up into those ocean blue eyes, and for a second everything around them falls away. 

Buck's the first to break away, taking a breath, but not before Eddie cups the back of his neck giving it a gentle squeeze, thumb caressing his jawline. There’s that dusting of red that blooms on his cheeks, and Eddie takes joy in the way Buck's heartbeat ticks up. “You’re not alone in this,” Eddie means that too. He won’t let what happened on his first full moon, happen to Buck. “Chris and I will be with you every step, ok?”

Those beautiful eyes fill with tears as he nods, and Eddie pulls him forward until his forehead pressed against Buck. “We’re not going anywhere.”

~*~

Eddie convinces Buck to stay the night, making up the sofa for him before going into his bedroom and pulling out his cell phone. He slumps onto the bed going through his contacts until he reaches the one name he hasn’t had to use in months. It rings three times before it’s picked up on the other end.

“Hey… I uh ...it's me”

Eddie concentrates on the heart beating down the hall from him, the deep steady breathing. “I need your help.”

~*~

Come morning it takes a few more phone calls to arrange for him to have time off, he claims a family emergency and feels guilty for it, but he isn’t exactly lying. He has more than a few weeks of vacation stored up. They’re going to need all the time they can take for this. Eddie’s considered Buck family for a while now… more than just family if he’s being honest. He knew deep down when they first met that Buck was more but at the time he hadn’t been ready to admit it. What with Buck being such a dick to him. It seems like the catalyst in changing all that was when they pulled that live grenade out of Charlie Dumar's leg. After that, it feels like they’ve grown so close in such a small amount of time, and Buck has been there for him through everything, from helping with Christopher’s care, which extended to helping his Abuela Isa and Tia Pepa when they needed it. Late shifts melting into late nights just hanging out. Extending into the weekend where they’d take Christopher out for the day.

Eddie was adamant that Buck was going to get through this. They’d lost so much in the last couple of months, he’d be damned if he let this be the thing that broke them apart. Buck’s still asleep on the sofa, so Eddie goes into Christopher's room to wake him for the day. He’s already made arrangements with the school to take time off for the week, any assignments and lesson plans were to be emailed home. The rest they would deal with when they got back if this were any other type of emergency he wouldn’t have had to pull Chris from school, as it was he couldn’t leave him behind, not after last night. Opening the door, he finds his son’s bed is empty, the blankets have been thrown to the side. Looking around he finds Christopher on the floor, just sitting there with an open book. “Chris…. You ok?” 

Christopher shakes his head, and Eddie calls himself all kinds of stupid. Of course, he’s not okay. He walks further into the room and sits by Christopher's side, pulling the book away from him. It’s a sketchbook, one he knows Buck got him before the Tsunami happened. “You wanna talk about it?” 

Christopher takes a deep breath, rubbing his nose across the sleeve of his pajama shirt. It takes a solid minute for him to say anything, and when he does, his voice is so low, that Eddie almost doesn’t pick it up right away. “I bit Buck… I was mad...” 

Eddie’s heart feels like it’s splintering at the careful way his son seems to be holding himself. He reaches out and pulls him onto his lap, arms cradling his boy as if he was trying to pull his pain away. “It was an accident...” 

Christopher shakes his head.

“Chris if it’s anybody’s fault, it was mine for taking last night's shift. I should have been home but…” Eddie makes sure that he has Christopher’s gaze on him, that there is no stuttering in his heart when he speaks. “It’s not your fault, it was just an accident,” 

“He’s like us now.” 

Eddie nods, “And that’s okay, cause he’s family and…” 

Christopher looks up at him with a smile that doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “Family takes care of their own.” 

“That’s right, and now Buck needs help.” 

Christopher tilts his head to the left, sucking in his lower lip before pulling the sketchbook back onto his lap. He fingers the inside cover before flipping it open, turns a few pages before he stops at a picture he’d drawn. Most of it was high green trees and a few rocks shaped into mountains. Different colored green filled the bottom of the page, there was a vaguely shaped house in the middle, it made Eddie smile. There are different shaped animals surrounding the house. Each animal has a different set of colored eyes. Christopher’s index finger lands on the big black shape with red eyes. Eddie sighs with happiness that he even remembers, feels Christopher turns in his arms. 

“We’re gonna see Uncle Derek?” 

“Yeah, kiddo, we are.” 

**Author's Note:**

> So a long time ago Sara and Kate, and Jen said something about a s3 promo pic looking like Buck got clawed by a werewolf. Behold this is the result. Thanks to Lisa for being my beta on this.


End file.
